```metadata
title: AOG Appendices
description: ''
tags: []
systems:
- 5e
renderer: V3
theme: 5ePHB
```
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:
# THE APPENDICES
## House Rules, Playstyles, and Thougts on Things!
:
I've been playing this game for 40+ years now. and in that time I've learned and relearned a lot. D&D is a complicated and ever evolving dance of information and imagination. I've often found a lot of trouble seeing someone else's vision in what they have written. Having put out dozens of adventures now, we at the AOG have figured out that what we see isn't always what you see. And while that is absolutely wonderful when it spawns creativity... it is absolutely tragic when it breeds confusion. I've been writing for a long time now and often about our Hobby. A while back I decided to start compiling those thoughts all into one place. This project is ongoing so you may want to check for new things from time to time!
So I present to you The AOG Appendices!
}}
:::
# TABLE OF CONTENTS
{{toc,
- ### [{{ PLAYING AOG ADVENTURES}}{{ 2}}](#p2)
- #### [{{ THE BASICS}}{{ 2}}](#p2)
- ### [{{ HORROR GAMES}}{{ 3}}](#p3)
- #### [{{ RUNNING HORROR GAMES}}{{ 3}}](#p3)
- #### [{{ MADNESS MECHANIC}}{{ 5}}](#p5)
- ### [{{ WORLD BUILDING}}{{ 6}}](#p6)
- #### [{{ CREATING A VILLAGE THAT MATTERS}}{{ 6}}](#p6)
- [{{ EXAMPLE: The Village of Iron Falls}}{{ 7}}](#p7)
- #### [{{ FIXING THE D&D ECONOMY}}{{ 9}}](#p9)
- [{{ The Ale Standard}}{{ 9}}](#p9)
- [{{ Expert Level Treasure}}{{ 11}}](#p11)
- ### [{{ RULES AND MECHANICS}}{{ 15}}](#p15)
- #### [{{ WHAT DO THE DICE SAY?}}{{ 15}}](#p15)
- #### [{{ FIXING DAMAGE FROM HAZARDS}}{{ 16}}](#p16)
- #### [{{ PHYSICAL HEALTH AND TRACKING LASTING WOUNDS}}{{ 17}}](#p17)
}}
\column
### COMING SOON
- Running a Heist / World Building
- Experience / Rules and Mechanics
- Earning Your Magic / World Building
- Are Rules Meant To Be Broken? / Rules and Mechanics
- Environments / World Building
- The 8 Encounter Adventure Day / Rules and Mechanics
- The Dangerous Places / World Building
- NPCs / Rules and Mechanics
- NPCs / World Building
- Rulers and Authority / World Building
- Pantheon / World Building
- Using an AC Cap / Rules and Mechanics
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## PLAYING AN AOG ADVENTURE: THE BASICS
#### Homebrewed World
First off, almost all my adventures are set in my Homebrew World of Taalist, particularly the Continent of Krenshad. Which the majority of has a very Gothic Art and Renaissance Period cultural feel to it. With some Greek and Middle Eastern Cultre from various time periods thrown in there for flavor. That said… Almost all of my Adventures can be easily ported into your location of choice. If you would like to play in Taalist my Campaign Guide (All 150+ Pages of it) can be accessed on our Discord.
#### The Lay Out
I divide my adventures into “Acts”. An Act doesn’t necessarily reflect an amount of time, but more of an important series of events or locations. Some Acts may take 5 minutes, some 5 hours. Why? I dunno, ask the players who over complicate simple matters and simplify the overly complex.
#### Skill Check DCs
I don’t spend a lot of time defining DCs as I play with a bit wider scale of success and failures. What does that mean? For reference the DC scale in 5E looks like this.... Very Easy DC 5, Easy DC 10, Medium DC 15, Hard DC 20, Very Hard DC 25, Nearly Impossible DC 30. When I list a DC, I will tell you it is Hard. But Hard for one party may be easy for another so I leave the actual number value up to you. I also play with a “Success but with Consequences” mentality. That means if they get close they still accomplish their goal, but there is a “but” to that success. An Example? Hard Stealth DC is 20, they roll an 18, I tell them “You sneak past the guard you see, but the guard you didn’t see heard something and is headed your way.” I think it adds more to the story that way.
#### Search Checks
I often reference Search Checks. What is a Search Check? When the players want to “search” something or for something I let them use either Investigation or Perception. I know that isn’t RAW but it just makes things so much easier. I got real tired of explaining to players who have been playing with me for years the difference between the two… just let them look for stuff!
#### Treasure Sizes
Every game is different. So I do not *usually* list out treasures. Instead I use the follwing terms to assign value not size to the treasure Petty, Small, Medium, Large, Huge. Often I will use a combination of them. You can decide how best to fulfill that for your party.
#### Identify Rules
I use a different style of Identify. Items in my world have a Knowledge DC on them (Arcana, Religion, History, and Nature). I allow the player to use an appropriate Check on an item to identify it. The Identify Spell adds a +10 to this. It can be upcast for additional +5 bonuses. Depending on the score of the Check I give them different information. Some information is extremely hard to obtain, for example Curses are well hidden behind DCs that are at least DC 30, often much higher.
#### Opening Cutscene
I like to start my games with an Opening Cutscene which is read before anything else happens. These are usually really vague bits of information that give a glimpse into something that will maybe happen later, happened before the adventure, or is story adjacent to it. I have found these to be great tools to set the mood and create a little mystery.
#### Setting, Background Info, and Hooks
These portions can be used as you see fit. Each one is a little different, so it is hard for me to say how best to use them. Some will play better if you can get them into the hands of the players before the game. Others may have better influence when read just after the Cutscene. Some are really only relevant to moments in the story. But as in all things you do what is best for your game! That is always the way to go.
#### Skill Challenges
I use the idea of Skill Challenges a lot. What is that? It is an event in the game that isn’t quite an encounter and it isn’t a simple skill check. It is a problem they solve with their whole skill set. Typically they must get three successes before three failures in order to succeed in a skill check. The thing about a Skill challenge is they’re are vague on purpose to allow players to be creative in solving a problem. An example may help here.
> - DM says “Your Boat is taking on water. What would you like to do?”
> - Player 1 responds with “I use my carpentry tools to fix the hole” and they make a Tool Check. But they roll a 2 so they fail. Too much water.
> - Player 2 says “ wants to row harder with the crew to get us toward shore faster” They make an Athletics Check and roll an 18. So that is a success.
> - Player 3 “I use Destroy Water to get water out” OK, well it only destroys 10 gallons so it isn’t super helpful, but the momentary reprieve allows a little drywork to happen and allow player 1 to reroll.
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## THOUGHTS ABOUT HORROR GAMES
##### What is a Horror Game?
That question covers a lot of bases! But there are some core values that make a game a Horror Game, and they aren’t what a lot of people think. Sure it can be a gross out carnage and gore run with entrail and blood covered monstrosities, but far more often it is about the tension and mood of the game you are running. Horror games dive deep into setting a specific tension building tone and subverting player expectations. If you have access to Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, read it! It has a multitudes of tips on what a Horror game is and can be!
:
##### Safety and Boundaries
VRGtR talks about this a lot. Make sure you know your group’s boundaries and have a safety system in place when you play. You can google info about that real quick if you need to. But basically it is a way for players to let you know that you’re heading into territory that makes them uncomfortable in NOT a fun way. Then you as the DM can pause and redirect. Twas a time I thought that was lame and unnecessary… then I had a player have a breakdown. I didn’t know it was coming and in fact they didn’t either, but the narrative got way to close to home emotionally in regard to past trauma. Were there safety tools in place that player could have let me know, but instead they felt trapped there growing more and more uncomfortable until it was too late. So talk to your players and develop a plan to create and protect boundaries!
:
##### Tone and Subverting expectations.
So lets talk about tone. Not the specific tone differences between say a gothic horror game and a cosmic horror game. The overall tone that horror should create. No matter what the style of the game is, horror games always promote feelings of rising tension and release. A lot of people compare this to a roller coaster, that’s close but coasters usually start big and end slower. Horror tends to work in reverse. Rising tension, small relief, more tension, more relief, high tension, little relief, you get the idea, and then it all comes racing to a finish at the end… or did it? Creating that kind of tension and not making your players miserable with it is a skill that you as the DM will need to develop. And one of the best ways to do that is to subvert their expectations.
This is another place where the Roller Coaster analogy kind of goes off the rails. (Yeah I punned that). You know on a coaster that after a long rise there is going to be a drop. You see it coming. You’ve watched it the entire time you were in line. It built excitement for that moment. But what if the coaster didn’t drop right there? What if it only dipped a little bit? What if the design of the track was intentionally misleading? That is the kind of tension you want to create.
Ever ride a Disney Coaster? Most are encased in a building or shoot through massive scenery that obscures your vision. That is 100% intentional, because were those coasters open air they'd be pretty lame, but the fact that you have no idea there are dips and twists coming on that run-away-mine-train makes otherwise yawnable rides fun. That is horror. The players think something is about to happen, but what is really happening is over here. You ever do the pull a quarter out of a kid’s ear trick? If you’re good at it you learned to get them to look anywhere but at where you’re keeping that quarter, and then the moment they look away you grab their head and scream WHAT IS THAT IN YOUR EAR! OMG!... lol… don’t do that to children… that’s called trauma. But when it comes to Horror Games I’m sure you get the idea. Its basic illusion work, get them looking anywhere other than where the threat is.
You also need to play with tropes and then sometimes turn them on their heads. Folks say all the time they hate tropes. I’m just gonna put this out there… most people don’t know what they actually like and hate. People love tropes, they’re tropes for a reason. We play a game that in all of its core aspects is a living breathing trope and it is really hard to get away from it.
So what we’ve all done is embrace it, sometimes without realizing it, and that gives you a lot of room to take tropes and flip them upside down. Horror leans into tropes all the time. A group of people get isolated and a creature picks them off one by one. That is the heart and soul of 90% of horror stories. That’s a trope. Strahd is one of the tropiest tropes that ever troped, and we all still love him. Tropes create a sense of security, players think they know what’s coming, and messing with that is your most effective tool in creating tension.
I ran Curse of Strahd a while back. It is wonderful as written, but I can’t help but mess with stuff so I jiggered the heck out of that module. In the run I introduced Colletta (the “Tatyanna”) character as the typical damsel in distress being chased by a Vampire. But then they met Strahd who was simply done with everything and determined to destroy his own realm. He was of course hot after Coletta as he always is, but more interested in the end of his curse. This turned him into an anti-hero of sorts, and every interaction with him was uncomfortable but helpful. . Now the players Never Ever Ever trusted Strahd, nor should they have. But Strahd was never the Villain of my story. Colletta was. I had given her access to past memories of her former lives and she was determined to not let Strahd free of his curse but instead to strip him of his powers and torment him herself forever. They players did so many horrible things to protect that damsel in distress and all the while were pawns to evil, meanwhile evil was attempting a true redemption that they denied him. Tropes used and expectations subverted. It was a glorious ending full of shock and horror. And I couldn’t have done it without leaning into tropes!
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##### Keep your Focus & Remember, Less is More
Less is More, this old saying rings true in so many areas of life, and holds a lot of sway over Horror. How many monsters are there in most Horror stories? Most of the time there is only one. If there are more it is usually the same type of creature. There is a reason for that. One you should lean into. One very hard to kill creature is a lot scarier than dozens of slaughterable goons. “If it Bleeds We Can Kill It.” is a statement of Hope not Fact. Hope can be crushed. Now I’m not saying don’t use minions or random encounters or mini bosses. We need those in an Adventure. What I am saying is don’t drown your players in them, and never let the focus off your main threat. It is always there. Looming and lurking. In many ways it is the Monster’s story and no one else's. Doubt that? Think of most of the popular Horror Stories you know, who is easier to remember? The Monster or the People it is after? In almost every regard, your threat is your Protagonist. You still probably want your players to pull out a win, because that is fun for them, but your monster is your true star.
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##### The World Doesn’t Work in Their Favor
Normally, there are a lot of things that should work in the players favor. NPC cooperation is often one of them. But you’re out to create a general feel of suspicion and distrust. Therefore NPC and the World should give the impression of wanting to cooperate, but they often don’t.
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##### Use Good Descriptive Words.
It’s not an Ogre. He isn’t just ugly. He is a hulking monstrocity nearly 10 feet tall covered in oozing sores with chunks of flesh hanging between its rotting teeth.
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##### Hunt Them
Being Hunted by a monster is more nerve wracking than fighting it. Building on a feeling of dread and anticipation can really make people unsettled.
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##### 2 Steps Forward 1 Step Back, Always…
They never fully win. Everything has strings attached and ripple effects. You‘re out to create the shadow of hopelessness. They save a peasant from a monster but while they were helping them, something else bad happened. Not as bad, but they need to start to live with the feeling that they have too many fires to fight. Let them win once and awhile, but they should mostly be partial victories. I mean you don’t want to crush their souls or anything… wait… or do you… ?
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##### Use a Kobayashi Maru
Otherwise known as a No Win Situation. Someone is sick and dying and they can’t save them. Someone can’t be brought back from the dead because - reasons. They couldn’t prevent a village from being destroyed. And if they pull a Captain Kirk and try to cheat the system… well remind them that Star Trek is fiction and this is D&D.
##### Force Them to Make Terrible Choices
In a regular game a BBEG might monologue and players could try to save the day. Yeah, that doesn’t happen here. If the BBEG is monologuing it is because players can’t stop them and they think it is amusing. There are two guillotine and two people trapped in them. They literally, no matter what can only save one. Those type of things. I have even killed a player very early in the campaign to emphasis that in a Horror Game villains don’t piss around.
##### Enforce Consequences.
Bad choice need consequences. This chips away at their morale. However, a player can usually deal with consequences affecting them. But… If they have an NPC ally and that NPC pays for it. That is differet. Hurt the helpless and your players will become extremely nervous. Hurt someone they don’t want to mess with and they will be down right scared. Now, this does not work on Murder Hobos... at first… because players like that don’t care about things like NPCs… but there are things they do care about, and once the consequence affects those things it hurts bad.
##### Chipping Away at Their Sanity
I highly reccomend using a sanity mechanic. There are many good ones out there that don't come across as blunt force trauma immediately. The things seen in a Horror Game should unsettle the characters deeply. In fact if we're honest most of what adventurers do and see should leave emotional trauma in their wake. Lean into that. When they see something have them make a sanity check... the more they fail the harder the checks get. And the more unhinged thier behavior becomes. Will they even be able to tell friend from foe by the end of the game? Hopefully at least one of them wont! Because having someone's character completely go off the rails is a good time in a game like this!
### SUPER IMPORTANT
##### Give Them a Flower in the Desert
The last thing I will leave you with is an easy and simple notion. Don’t constantly oppress the players. Horror has a lot of things that chip away at resolve, and if you don’t lift them up once and a while they’ll give up. That means they stop having fun. The Flower in the Desert concept is exactly what it sounds like. Give them something fun and wonderful once and a while. Give them a scene of beauty not terror. Give them a flower in the desert. It keeps them going and helps relieve the stress of the adventure. Humor is often one of your best avenues, but a real spot of world building beauty is something they will always remember!
##### The End?
I’ve got a ton more I could say about all things Horror, but I gotta wrap it up somewhere. If you want to pick my brain about it, send me a message where you found this and I’ll get back to ya!
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## MADNESS MECHANIC
I enjoy using madness, but with care. Real life faces difficult things, many extreme. I am not prone to dancing around those issues. Personally I think we are made stronger when we deal with them head on. And happen to think Role Playing can be a great setting to deal with such things. HOWEVER. (A big however, that is what I prefer… not what everyone else prefers.) There is absolutely no excuse or reason to be insensitive or flippant with another human being's emotional state and past trauma. I highly recommend talking about the possibility of sensitive issues before the game and having a way for players to signal the need for a course correction when something begins to cross boundaries.
### The Mechanic I Use
I use a countdown mechanism. Players start with 100 Sanity Points, which work like HP. Certain events and sights cause Sanity Damage. Conversely, treatments, rest, and downtime activity restore them, like healing does for HP. Once enough points are lost they cross Madness Thresholds and begin to suffer from different mental and emotional maladies. At first they aren’t all that bad. Picking up odd superstitions. Strange habits. A smidge of paranoia or a phobia. But the further they dive or the more often the dip into madness the greater the issues. Kleptomania. Real Paranoia. Hallucinations. Even violence against themselves or their friends. How this manifests should be a conversation between the player and the DM and should fit into the game. The Official Rules have lists of Types of Madness that we can go to for ideas. It is preferable to have this conversation precampaign. I really don’t like forcing a behavior on a player without consulting them. Once the type of Madness is agreed upon, that type, and or any additional issues, will continue to grow.
#### Starting Stats
1) All players begin with 100 Sanity Points.
2) This Score is modified by their Int or Wisdom. Players gain +/- 5 points based on their modifiers. Example +10 Sanity if they have a +2 Wisdom. -5 Sanity if they have a -1 Intelligence. If they have a negative this is their top tier threshold. (See Note)
#### In Game
1) Throughout their adventures they will encounter triggering events. Seeing a horrific ghost. Watching a loved one fall to their death. Stumbling upon humans eating a corpse. Reading from a Cursed Occultic Tome. Spending time at a child’s overly attended and out of control 6th birthday party… Trauma isn’t specific either. Some events may hit one character harder than others. As the DM this is up to you. How much damage they take will depend on the event. Trauma Damage will manifest as an all or nothing saving throw aimed at either Int or Wis.
2) Players should be able to do things to recover Sanity. Including simply getting a good rest. Other things like a night out at the inn, visiting your temple, casual reading, hobbies, spa days, etc… These types of things keep Madness at bay, but in a horror game Madness, like time, comes for us all. Once players dip below the thresholds of 100/75/50/25 they can’t normally go back over.
3) Once they cross one of the Madness Thresholds they will begin to suffer some form of mental health issue. The further down the rabbit hole they go the worse things should get.
4) It is up to you as the DM to decide the damage and the healing certain events do, but I recommend using multiples of a d6s for Damage and d4s for Healing. I also limit the healing to two events, usually weekly. But that depends on the pacing of your game.
**Note:** Now, we can’t leave our friends who start with scores below 100 feeling like mindful characters have an unfair advantage. It is well studied that people with higher IQs suffer from a lot more mental health issues. Not my opinion, that’s just science. It is likely due to the slower of mind not always processing things, information, and events as completely, or in many cases over-completely, as folks with more active and acute thinking patterns do. In other words Barbarian Smash and Move On! Wizard Obsesses and Over-Think! So if the Player has a negative stat, it grants them resistance to that type of Trauma and advantage when rolling to recover Sanity Points from activities.
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# WORLD BUILDING
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##### Don’t let world Building intimidate you. While every Fantasy World is different, often enough, once we’re past the few wonderfully unique bits, they all share nearly everything in common.
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## CREATING A VILLAGE THAT MATTERS
Today I’m going to talk about villages and why they’re important. In fact I’m going to outright encourage you to run an entire campaign in a Singular Location and never leave. What? Why? Well, the Village as a location is often one of the most overused and under utilized settings in the TTRPG universe. They are usually nothing more than starting points for Adventurers that become quick stopping points for them later as they bounce from quest to quest whooshing through both bringing and leaving chaos in their wake. But they don’t have to be! In fact if done right a well crafted village can make larger sandboxy world feel empty and lonely.
Functionally, villages are usually constructed around a resource, managing its processing, and distributing it in trade. Examples would be Farming villages, Mining Towns, Lumber Camps, things of that nature. Smaller villages tend to turn that process internally, producing what the settlement needs to survive, while larger ones often become a part of a regional economy, partnering with other nearby locales to support one another. They don’t necessarily have to be self-sufficient for basic needs, such as food and water, and can rely on trade for goods, but they generally attempt to take care of themselves. Villages typically are too small to have much in the way of local government, but there is usually an elder or two in charge. They also struggle to muster any sort of permanent security or military forces and so will often trade goods and services to larger nearby settlements in return for protection. This leaves a lot of opportunity for Adventurers to make a Village more than just a point on a map or a small part of a quest. And I want you to seize that opportunity!
**Why would I want to do that? Let me give you three compelling reasons to do so.**
1. Well, for starters they have a baked in, easy entry, and low prep plot hook available to you that is highly flexible in theme. The Village Resource. Depending on what resource the Village specializes in you have instant plot hooks by putting that resource in trouble. You can double down on that avenue with branches that deal with supply and production as well as trade and economics. Pests in the fields, Kobolds in the mines, Fey in the Lumber Camps, etc.Chain those problems into other problems and you have a natural series of adventures that build on one another, and at the same time can be spaced out, leaving room for other adventures. And that is something every DM wants, even needs.
2. Second, a small village and surrounding area comes with easy to connect with and recognizable Lore, Locations, and NPCs. Villages have their own History, Secrets, and People. Furthermore, just like most small towns, those born there often don’t leave. Which means, there is plenty of gossip, locals know what skeletons are in people’s closets, and family rivalries are pretty common. This grows out of the natural interconnection and social structures that can not be achieved as easily in a large scale setting. This creates an environment where the players get to know everyone in the town quickly and naturally, and builds into them a deep seeded need to be protective of what they now see as their Village. People live in a city, but they are part of a village. Give them a home, an actual house they can upgrade, and they’ll knit themselves completely into the culture. This opens the door to the wonderful opportunity for a DM to really flesh out the characters and background in their game. It is a place that naturally spawns connection with your players which is a gift. A gift that in turn spawns Adventures.
3. Less Prep Time! Most DMs spend more time getting ready for a game than actually running a game. A Village helps trim this time by building on familiarity. In a “grand adventure” you’re constantly coming up with new locations and characters for your players to interact with, which if we’re honest, are mostly just reskins of characters and locations we’ve probably already used before. But in a Village once you know the NPCs and the frequented locations you move into the interesting place of adding to them. Your people and places gain a depth that is hard to achieve in a world hopping adventure, but here it comes naturally, often without a lot of pre-prepping. In fact there is a good chance your players will do a lot of the work for you just naturally playing the game. The same goes for locations. We often feel the need to branch out into different environments in order to create something “special”, but the secret to special isn’t in a certain style, it’s connectivity. Caverns that have secret doors that won’t open until a family heirloom is found. Treasure Maps that seemed to lead one place, but a local tells you it actually leads somewhere else. Fey Touched Groves that don’t interact with players until after they’ve helped a Dryad. An ancient site buried under farm fields only recently uncovered. A grotto discovered in the mines leads to deep and dangerous places. Tie these to the Players and NPC’s backgrounds and your players will never want to leave!
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**Still on board? Great! Let’s plan a Village!**
So what does a great one look like? Start with that resource and tie it to a neat location. A fertile river valley for farms, rocky hills for mining, a forest for logging, things like that. Then add a little flair to the area and diversify it some. Forests have ponds and glades, hills have crags and canyons, river valley’s have cliffs and maybe a waterfall, those kinds of things. Now you have an area to play in. Drop your village into a spot that makes sense. Now add some NPCs. I usually start with shop and business owners. Begin with the Resource Operations in the area. These are the main reasons the village exists, and then follow that with important secondary resources that produce basic needs like food. Next, we’ll need some places like a General Store, an Inn, a Smithy, a Miller, a Temple, and maybe one or two other shops. You don’t want much more than that, maybe even less. If they start looking for more exotic or expensive goods, have the General Store order them in the next shipment. Now each of those stores needs an owner. I usually make this a family affair and build out a whole household here. The wealthiest families will be tied to the resource, followed by the business owners, and then the common folk. You may even want to toss in a local Noble who lives up on a hillside overlooking town. Now these folks should fill in a stereotype common to small settlements. You’ll want people like the town drunk, a shady dealer, that overly religious family, the other family that hates them, the recluse, that gang of naughty kids, the grouchy get off my lawn elder, and the kindly old folk that just want the kids to become heroes, and of course the tavern server who wants to become a bard.
But wait, you cry! This feels just like every other village! Yup, because this is only where you start. Now you introduce the players to the town, or even have them born there. (I like the second option better) and we do this so that they know things about where they are. Players don’t connect with your world because they don’t know your world, and let’s be honest it is extremely rare that any of them are going to invest time into knowing it. That hurts as a World Builder, but it is the honest to goodness truth. So if everything starts out so trope-ish that everyone knows what’s going on, then they know your world. But the thing is, they only think they do. Truth is, they don’t because you haven’t started adding flavor and mystery. The shopkeeper has a Fairy that has been harassing her for years. One of the Miller’s kids contracted Lycanthropy. The Inn Keep is in debt to the wrong people. One of the local farm hands is actually a Noble in hiding due to a misunderstanding with another Noble’s wife. Someone in town is a Night Witch. Another had their daughter taken by a Hag when she was an infant and is soon to turn. Better still is when it is one of your players who hides the secret! Suddenly you have all these interconnected people, all with problems of their own, living in a place that is just begging for someone to come along and help or take charge!
And no one ever has to travel more than ten miles from home to experience it all.
Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed my thoughts on Creating A Village That Matters.
### BONUS!
Because some have responded, quite aggressively, that this idea is only for early levels I sat down one morning and came up with 40+ Hooks, a few locations, and several NPCs for a village that will take a party from level 1-20 and never leave the area. This isn’t an effort to say you can’t have a world traveling epic campaign, but the notion that you have to is absolute poppy-cock.
And here is a link to The [free PDF of BUMPKIN QUEST!](https://www.patreon.com/posts/guide-bumpkin-to-80202231) in which I apply this concept. It's a little bigger than a small village but the core concepts are the same. It is completely different than the sample listed below. I am also aways adding to this one.
### The Village of Iron Falls
This small hamlet is positioned at the mouth of a deep box canyon in the eastern foothills of the nearby mountains. A large waterfall spills over the far edge of the canyon creating a large cold pool of water before the river rushes outward. Years ago some local dwarves discovered a rich veins of iron in the hills and some copper as well. A small mining town formed shortly afterward. Beyond the canyon there are a number of farms that have been carved out of the nearby forests, which aren’t overly thick but are old and have a mysterious feel to them.
##### Shops and Owners
- The Iron Fist Mines: The mines are owned by Garist Iron-Fist the VII, who inherited them from his Grandfather who founded the village. The mines employ several dozen workers. Garist is young for a Dwarf and has yet to marry. Some say that is due to his foul disposition.
- The Rusty Pick, Inn and Tavern: Run by Belgrund and Holdra Gravel-Boot, a kindly older dwarven couple. The Inn has been here as long a s
- Lamp Lighter’s General Store: Run by Jakran and Wendlin Granite-Back, a younger dwarven couple moved more recently to the village. They took the store over from its previous owner Willa Green Bough, a Halfling woman who passed from old age.
- Blackscale’s Hammer and Tongs: The local Smithy, much to the surprise of travelers, is run not by a Dwarf but by a Lizard Folk by the Moniker of Blackscale. They are an odd individual but do exceptional metalwork.
- Login Camp: Willard Childer: Human woodsmith. Runs a logging and hunting camp out in the forest. Lots of odd stories surrounding this man.
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- The Water Mill: Gillin and Nedra Miller, local halflings run the local Water Mill. They’re about as normal as normal can be. They have a son, Petey who gets into all kinds of trouble.
- The Temple of Moradin: Parson Kurlor Silver-Shield, is a stern but fair old dwarf and has run this temple for nearly as long as the village as been here. It was the second building constructed. The tavern was first of course.
##### Farmers
- Robeur Jensen: Local Pig Farmer, unmarried human. Dirty
- Celamor and Youlidai Wildermoun: Elven Farmers. These two High Elves run a good sized farm that grows a lot of different fruits for the locals. They are aloof but friendly.
- Bert and Patty Long Furrow: Halfling farmers who grow most of the areas vegetables and grains.
- Morris and Jenn Lancastle: Local cattle ranchers. Typical big mustache cowboy and Rancher’s wife.
##### Notable Folk
- Thomas “Gunny” Worth: Local human drunk, happy singing fella. Sings too late into the evening. Lost a leg in a war.
- Betsy “Bottoms Up” Brenar: Local human barmaid and Bard. Wants to be more Bard than Barmaid.
- Oliver Trudeau: Human fella who is the guy who gets folks what they “need”. Oliver runs a lot of shady side hustles.
- Morrit Hammer-Clang: Morrit is an elderly Dwarf. The oldest member of the village and in a lot of ways the town Mayor although there has never been an election or appointment for such a thing.
- Bennik Grey-Stone: Is a retired adventurer who volunteers as the town constable. (Level 5 Fighter)
- Old Yelena: This ancient human can be described as a Swamp Witch. She works in medicines and potions.
- Quodly: Quodly is a Dwarven Hermit. Really old and haggard. He gets supplies dropped off to his “land” once a month but is rarely seen.
- Tripod: Three Legged Dog that runs around town.
##### Adventures
- Level 1: The Farmers Crops / Protect a farmstead from a variety of pests
- Level 1: Miner annoyances / A group of Kobolds are harassing the local Miners
- Level 2: Bandit Problems / Stop a group of Bandits from raiding the local Farms
- Level 2: Missing Child / One of the locals Children has gone missing
- Level 3: Encroaching Dangers / A Warbad of Orcs is massing Nearby Stop them
- Level 3: Would Be Wizard / The apprentice needs some help gathering dangerous components
- Level 4: The Cavern / A forgotten cavern is discovered nearby and begs to be explored
- Level 4: Keeper of the Grove / A Dryad begins harassing local lumber jacks
- Level 4: Spooky H.O.A. / The village gives them a house… it’s haunted
- Level 5: Old Secrets / One of the elders tells the party there is a Hag in the woods
- Level 5: What Lies Below / The town is built on top of an ancient cultic cavern and it is not empty
- Level 6: Predators and Prey / Something is hunting the local’s livestock. Something big.
- Level 6: The Cure / Someone needs to be cured of Lycanthropy the cure will be hard to obtain
- Level 7: The Patron / A Mythical Being guards the village and recruits the party to deal with a problem
- Level 7: Miner Problems / The Kobolds have returned with help and have swarmed the mine
- Level 8: Murdered / A local has been brutally murdered. Who did it?
- Level 8: The Deal / A Fiend has come to collect on a deal. Someone need a lot of help
- Level 9: Bounty / Bounty Hunters come looking for a local hermit. But do they have the right target?
- Level 9: Giant Problems / A clan of Giants stakes out territory nearby and that’s trouble
- Level 10: Winter is Coming / While away something freezes the town solid. Save it!
- Level 10: Growing Pains / They party’s fame has drawn newcomers. Are they all on the level? Nope.
- Level 10: Patron’s End / Something has killed the town guardian. What could it be!?
- Level 11: Protectors / The Party assumes the role of the Village Guardian
- Level 11: Fortifications / The Army arrives to fortify against an invading army they recruit the party
- Level 11: Siege / The village comes under attack from invaders
- Level 12: Miner Catastrophe / The mine has opened a hole into a large cavern… something lives there.
- Level 12: Into the Deep / The Party further explores the massive cavern
- Level 13: Ruined / A ruin has been discovered in the woods. A powerful Fey is insulted by the trespass
- Level 13: Transported / The Fey have moved the village into the Fey version of the area.
- Level 14: Wild / The players must find the Fey Lord and convince it to return them
- Level 15: Deals / The Fey Lord proposes a deal. Capture a “beast” for it and they will return the village.
- Level 16: In your Absence / Invaders have taken the village’s territory while it was missing. Fight Back!
- Level 16: General Bad Ass / The fight comes to a head as the players due battle with the enemy
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- Level 17: Court and Castle / The players are given land and title. They can build a castle!
- Level 17: Walking Corpse / The battle has awakened a Lich to the area. It animates the dead
- Level 17: Long Forgotten / The players must hunt down the Lich’s lair in the wilderness
- Level 18: Sanctum of Death / Into the Lair they go. Prepare for a multi-session dungeon crawl.
- Level 18: The Court of the Corpse King / Battle the Lich
- Level 19: Rulers / The players begin to rule their growing village but other Nobles are jealous
- Level 19: Nightmares / The village is plagued by nightmares. Enter the dreams to stop them.
- Level 19: Trade Dispute / The other Nobles have employed a powerful Druid to wipe the village out.
- Level 20: Wrath / A cult seeks to summon a Demon Lord from the ancient site under the village.
- Level 20: Miner Cataclysm / A Mother Lode of mythical ore draws the attention of a Legendary Dragon
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# Dealing D&D's Wonky Economy
###
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## Coins Worth Keeping aka The Ale Standard
### Making Treasure Matter! Part 1
Since the dawn of D&D players have chased treasure. Gold, Trinkets, Gems and Jewelry. Rarely do we do so with any form of realism. Metals are extremely heavy, and any realistic thought of carrying around tens of thousands of valuable metal coins is not only absurd but functionally impossible. Ever try and pick up a large change jar, like the kind you granny kept? Full Plate Armor weighs almost nothing compared to that sucker. But here is the thing… we don’t care. And we don’t care because it is fun to have 10k in gold coins jingling around in our pockets! I don’t know if we will ever do away with the nuttyness of carrying all those coins, but I do think we can do something about their value.
If you’re of the persuasion that the original D&D brand of cp, sp, ep, gp, and pp is the way you wanna go, and tracking all that is fun for you and your party then by all means keep on keeping on. Nothing wrong with that! But I am about to suggest a little something I call the Ale Standard. A method of tracking and using a modified standard currency because I got a suspicion that a lot of us out there just don’t like dealing with the minuta of all those coins and conversions. We would also really like wealth to continue to matter, and in most cases matter more. I’ve noticed a trend toward “items” and a lot more hand waving when it comes to money. Which is just fine, but I, and maybe you, want to run games where every coin matters!
So let’s start with values. Assuming a metal rarity in your D&D world that is similar to our own… How much is a gold coin actually worth? Most of us in our minds picture a pirate movie-esq doubloon sized gold coin. Which is pretty huge if you think about it. And for the most part fictional. Actual gold coins were much much smaller. I’m going to warn you, parts of this train are pretty mathy. Hopefully you’ll ride it out, as after 40 years of D&D I think it is well worth it.
A U.S. dime. A coin worth 10% of a dollar weighs 2.268 grams. As of 2023 Gold sells for a little over $60 a gram depending on purity (US dollars). We will stick to $60 for simplicity. Gold has retained a pretty consistent value throughout human history. $60 can buy you some jeans and a tee-shirt today and generally speaking that same amount could buy an equal value outfit when Jesus was kicking it in the middle east 2000 years ago. That’s why Gold has been used as an economic standard for a long time…
(Well… we used to. Not saying the Gold Standard was perfect, but now we just make up numbers based on what we guess something might possibly be worth if it were to be a tangible item we could actually sell, all while just adding more numbers to our imaginary digitally created values… … … anyway… It’s sad, but D&D’s economy might actually make more sense, and I don’t think it makes any sense at all.)
ANYWAY, a gold coin the weight of a dime would be worth about $150 dollars. An actual Spanish Doubloon weighed about 7 grams and was a little less than an inch wide (Varied depending on the time period). Making a standard gold coin worth $420. The price of a cheap, but not bottom of the barrel, flatscreen TV in 2023. How many times in our games do we as DM’s simply say for some drinks at the tavern or for an apple from a street vendor “1 Gold” to cover the costs. The ratio realistically doesn’t work. You could hand wave and say that Gold isn’t as rare in your world, well sure, but if a Gp covers an apple what the hell are people making Copper Coins for? And how then is anything made of Gold valuable at all? It just doesn’t track! And I really want treasure to matter in my world, and if an Apple is worth a Gp, or, you know, $420… it doesn’t matter.
Player: Would you like an apple?
Player: Why Yes I would!
Merchant: That will be one TV.
Player: No Problem! I happen to have 750 TVs right here!
See how lame that is?!
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Which brings me to the point of all this. Once the cost of items drifts into Gp territory in D&D, the economy completely falls apart. The PHB says Modest living is worth 1gp a day, you know $420 for a day’s expenses… over $50 an hour… that’s more than many people make in a week. Comfortable living (middle class) is twice that! So let’s put this back on track, and I suggest you do so by switching to a basic currency type. Call it whatever you want! It can be Crowns, Dollars, Coins, Gil, Rupees, Pinches of Salt, or whatever you wanna call it because the name becomes part of the flavor of your world.
The next thing you want to do is take one unit of that currency and equal it to a commonly bought item that costs 1 Unit of your currency. In my world that is the Ale Standard. The average Ale at any given tavern across the world costs 1 Coin. So when pricing things I ask myself how many Ales is this worth? And then I build off of that, creating other value benchmarks I can reference along the way, and very often using real world pricing to reflect the Coin cost.
Best of all it is not hard to track! Most people understand and are skilled enough with basic currency values, and so operating this way just makes sense to them. That aforementioned apple now costs a Quarter Coin… you know $0.25. Your player, who is about to begin tracking their wealth the way we track modern money, knows exactly how to take a quarter off their total. No more dealing with conversion tables for different coinages.
Say you go out to eat at an average restaurant. You get a drink (Ale). That drink typically costs about 25% of a single meal. So an Ale is one Coin and a meal is 4 Coins. Total package 5 Coins. That is $4 for a drink and $16 for a meal so $20. A mid-level hotel stay is about $120 (30 Coins). A day’s wages for a poor lifestyle is 2sp according to the PHB. Which 20% of a gp, which according to our math above is about $120 a day or… $15 an hour… or 30 Coins. Which tracks for a poor but not squalid lifestyle. Stuff like that! And now that we’ve figured out a day’s wages we can easily calculate almost any value in our world simply by multiplying it by 30 Coins.
“But Mike” you cry “This does not sound simpler.”
Not up front. No. No, it does not. But after just a few conversions it will start to feel natural and just hang on… Imabout to blow your mind.
Once your “Coin” value is set and you have a good working knowledge of your base currency you can begin to quickly set reward values and costs in the D&D World that are often nebulous to us. As I said before, the pricing in the PHB doesn’t track well once they move into the Gp territory. A longsword in D&D would cost a ridiculous amount if Gp is translated accurately on the gold scale. But now we’re able to fix that, quickly. We’ve already determined a poor day’s wages above was 2sp (30 Coins), that means a D&D Gp should be worth 150 Coins. But according to the PHB a longsword is 15gp. Or 75 days worth of labor. Or you know… $9000. Which is BONKERS! And don’t even get me started on the cost of Full Plate Armor! A standard Iron Longsword, nothing fancy, probably took a couple days to make. So paying a laborer 30 Coins a day for two days is 60 Coins, plus say another 15 Coins for materials putting it at $350, Which, according to the internet, is completely in the ballpark for a “middling quality” hand forged weapon even by today’s standards.
This quickly translates to everything that happens in the world around you. You can begin to take a day’s wages and real world pricing and reduce it down to coins VERY quickly. Need a cart ride to the next town? 30 coins for the day’s work. Want a few hours worth of errands run? 15 Coins! Want a fence built over the next two days? 60 Coins. Sure it was easy to just say a Gp. But imagine paying someone $450 just to water your horse. That is insane, but we do it in our games all the time!
Looking for a skilled or expert laborer, double up the cost of the day’s wage! For example, building a simple one room house (Think Log Shed)? 5 skilled laborers at 60 Coins a day for 5 days would be 1500 Coins ($6000. Guess how much a 20x20 Aamish built shed costs?) Add land and furnishing costs and the total comes in at about, oh lets say, 10,000 coins or $40,000! Which feels about right for a tiny piece of land with a small furnished building on it. I mean compare that to a Basic Guildhall which has a listed cost in the DMG of 5000gp or you know almost $3,000,000… A cost that could be used to realistically build 65 20x20 buildings. You could build a good sized village for that cost if we’re talking sensible pricing.
Shifting gears back to selling stuff off, it is also now very easy for the players to reasonably counter-offer if they go after a deal… which we all know they love to do. And to have stuff ordered and crafted for them! Now when they do these things, you can make up prices that feel real and connective on the fly without needing to consult the PHB or DMG. How much does a healing potion cost? (PHB says $21,000) Pfffft…. You just quickly guess at and add some things like 10 Days of work, Highly Skilled Labor (say 100 Coins a day), and Expensive Materials (500 Coins). Voilà, your potion costs 1500 Coins. Or realistically, just over 3gp. Still pricy to early level adventurers but also still within reach!
Now, I’ve given you my exact formulas. I use the Ale Standard because it is close to realistic pricing, but still simple enough to multiply quickly. But if that is still a little too mathy for you, just jump a day’s wages being 25 or 50 coins. Multiplication by quarters and halves is a lot faster for those of us who don’t like math. It isn’t quite as on the money as realistic pricing as 30 coins, but it is still way better than $900,000 Full Plate Armor… or you know 2143 TVs.
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I know this is a huge departure from the PHB economy, and that can be a little hard to get your head around. But I encourage you to do it! I think you’ll be surprised at how easy it is once you get going and best of all, you now just turned your “How much does that cost?” “One Gold” “How much does that cost?” “One Gold” “How much does that cost?” “One Gold” shopping sprees into something that actually reflects costs and makes money matter again. It becomes easy to charge them for things like tailoring and blacksmithing in a way that feels real and most importantly fun. Because let's face it, when everything costs a gold, it becomes a lot less fun to spend a gold.
“But so what? We’ve done these extra hurdles, and for what? I could still do all this and use the coins listed in the Rule Books!”
Well, hang with me till next week when I show you the most wonderful effect doing this causes. How switching to Coins makes treasure matter more than it has since it was tied to Experience Points!
## Expert Level Treasure
### Making Treasure Matter! Part 2
We now have our standard set and we are comfortable doing quick pricing conversions. We’re going to shift gears to where this concept really shines. Treasure and the use of wealth!
#### Before we begin!
If you didn't read **Coins Worth Keeping aka The Ale Standard** you'll probably want to do that or this might not makes as much sense as it should. The short of that piece if you need reminding was, that D&D Economics are broken and we usually pay the price of a TV for things a small as apples. I'm also going to go through a few mechanics I use before we get to the meat of the matter. That way you'll have a full grasp on what I'm about to teach you.
#### First Lets talk about Treasure Sizes
In a game Treasure can be defined as any reward with Monetary Value. So lets talk real quick about assigning value. You've probably noticed but I do a lot of things on sliding scales and don't get stuck on the exact details. Dealing with treasure is no exception to that. Therefore, when I'm prepping a reward, I use the following concepts and terms to assign that overall value. I label my treasures as; Petty, Small, Medium, Large, Huge. I then make the size relevant to the source of the treasure. Its a simple enough idea that I'll circle back to later. But I should give you some examples first.
**Example 1:** The Players need Ale Money and shake down a commoner. Poor Feller. So I ask myself, what is the minium amount of wealth a Commoner might have on them? What is the max? Lets say 10,000. And I let those questions inform the size of the reward. Probably a single Coin for a minimum (Petty) and 10,000 at a max (Huge). This also creates opportunity for story. Why did this bloke only have a coin? Was he already robbed? Did he owe someone else a lot? Or. Why does this Commoner have thousands? Was he headed to buy a house? Did he rob the bank? What the heck?
**Example 2:** The Players come upon a Dwarven Merchant and decide to engage in some supply chain mis-management. (They're gonna rob her) So I ask myself the questions. Min and Max? Maybe few hundred Coins in Goods and actual Coin if the Merchant was already robbed (Petty). Maybe 250,000 if they happen to be moving their entire inventory to a new location (Huge). You see! Your Treasure is already beginning to matter. If you want better treasure it isn't enough to simply throw things at them. You have to ask Why? Why does the Halfling have a Large pouch of Coins? Why does the Dragon have such a Small hoard?
#### Let's Talk about Item Groups
This is something new I've been doing to save myself time and increase the versatility and usefulness of Treasure. It has so far been a fantastic addition to my DM Tool Box. And What is it? I collapse Treasure into useful Item Groups that I assign a Coin value to. I really hate it when a group of Players kills a pack of Goblins and wants to strip them down to their birthday suits and carry everything back to town. I don't hate it because its unreasonable, heck I do it when I'm a player. I hate it because it's cumbersome to track. 8 Short swords, 4 Leather Armor, 2 Studded Leather, 3 Shields, 12 bone trinkets, 1 Teddy Bear, etc. etc... All that has to get recorded and then the DM has to to all the merchant business and math and bla bla bla. Worts part of the game for me. So what I started doing is this.
DM: The Goblins lay dead at your feet. What do you do?
PLAYERS: Loot the Bodies
DM: You find 120 Coins in Goblin Equipment. Please record that.
PLAYER 1: Is there a shield in there? I need a Shield.
DM: There is a shoddy wooden shield. If you would like to take it please subtract 10 Coins from the Goblin Equipment.
What I have done here is lump everything together into basically an Item called Goblin Equipment, and I let them draw what they want from that "Item". Furthermore this solves some background narrative issues as well. Looting actually take a long time if you're counting objects. Just got organize your junk drawer and time yourself. HOURS. What this does is allow your players to grab everything of value and toss it into a sack. They then later can go back to that sack and see if there is something in there. Like the batteries in your junk drawer, that you're pretty sure are there.
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PLAYER 2: Hey did those Goblins have any Tools on them?
DM: You dig through the Goblin Equipment and find a set of Smiths Tools. If you would like to take it please subtract 20 Coins from the Goblin Equipment.
How you determine what's in there is really up to you. If it makes sense like the shield, I just give it to them. If its a bit more specific of an ask I often have my players roll a D20 to determine if they find what they're looking for. The better the roll the more likely its there. If it's wildly specific I do additional rolls.
Doing this has made my life infinitely easier. You'll still want to track specific objects you plan on passing out. Things like Magic Items and Plot Specific rewards. But overall this allows your players to still strip the room without you or them having to engage in the micromanagement of inventories.
#### In Depth Scenario
But we're not going to stop at Treasure Values and making those more interesting. Or Item Groups and how they can help you. I’m gonna run a more thorough scenario past you that demonstrates my methodology. And opens up even more narrative doors.
**The DM Describes the scene.**
DM: The Green Dragon Wyrmling lies dead at your feet. It was a child by the standards of their kind, just past hatchling, but even young it was easily capable of killing villagers and travelers, and it was plenty cunning enough to extort the locals for Coin. In the back of the cavern you find its treasure horde. It isn’t the impressive sea of wealth tavern tales spin about the hordes of dragons, but the pile of trinkets and goods seasoned by copper and silver sovereigns and peppered with the glints of gold and gemstones let you know that you will be living pretty well for at least a few months.
You’ve collected a Young Dragon's Treasure that seems to be worth 7500 Coins.”
Inside of that are all kinds of household goods and decorations mostly common with a few rare. There is also the equipment of a few fallen adventurers.
Is there anything you’re looking for specifically?
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**The Players then make some asks**
CLERIC: Are there Diamonds among the gems?
BARD: Did the Adventurer’s have anything interesting?
FIGHTER: “I really need an armor upgrade, is there any armor in the pile?
WIZARD: Is there any interesting local art in the trinkets? A small statue or something? Something reflective of their culture? I would like to collect such things.
**The DM or the players make some Rolls to determine the result of their asks.**
When we do this I usually just call for a d20 roll with no modifiers. I like to have the players do this and plan to reward them according to their results. Within reason of course, but I often let them and the dice determine what they find. It is still a little random but it is also very guided and intentional to the player's desires. And that is really important to them!
The Gem ask comes back low (3) the general equipment ask comes back high (16) and the armor comes back mediocre (9). Since the pile is made up of local treasures there is no roll needed to determine whether or not there is something of that nature. It is simply there… but we do roll to determine the value scale. And that roll blasts a nat 20. Now all these rolls are subject to DM interpretation, so how I create the reward scale is a little fluid but works something like this.
**The DM answers the specific queries.**
DM: You spend some time sorting the gems. Unfortunately no diamonds. The Gemstones are mostly uncut and lower quality, they’ll fetch you some Coin and maybe you can afford a few diamonds in trade.
You examine the general equipment of the Adventurers. You can tell their fight with the dragon went poorly. Broken sword, torn clothing, smashed equipment... but there is a rope that seems to have taken no damage at all.
In the gear of the warrior of the fallen group you don’t find anything really useful, but it looks like she was carrying a scroll case, odd for a sword swinger. Inside you find some plans for a more protective style of the armor you have. A blacksmith could do this for you for half the cost of a new suit!
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There is quite a bit of local flair. Would you like something simple or something rare?” “Rare!” “The town has a thing for pegasus, so You grab a sapphire eyed silver and gold figurine of one. it is quite beautiful, and likely worth more than the rest of the trinkets combined. (I did not make this the Magic Item since the ask was for a specific locally flaired item. It could have gone here, but a trinket often means more)
So what I have done here is in prep I set a Medium treasure value for the loot of a Dragon and put the value at 7500 Coins. But in Game I then let the players and the dice have a say in what is found in the reward. So now we do a quick rerun of the value. The gemstones were a bit of a bust so we subtract a little of the value total. We scored well on the "interesting" roll so I tossed in a Rope of Climbing, I had planned for 1 Magic Item and put it here. And we came up meh on the armor so I met them halfway with the plans. They can still get it, but it has a cost to it now.
But the high roll on the trinkets means that like the gemstone roll, the result impacts the direct total. In this case I would add 25% to the total from that item alone. They can now take the items out of it they want, subtracting the item's value from the pile total, or dig through it a bit more to see if anything else pops up that interests them.
This is a great place to pepper in descriptions of strange coins and other odds and ends. Engaging in dynamic looting like this really ups the feel for the pile and will often spark another ask about specific things. Which is great. Though I usually put the DCs higher as they do this, especially if they're looking for expensive things. I would rather spend my time building imagination than playing “Inventory Manager". Once they're done and you've subtracted any necessary amounts, made some notes about what is in there, and have a singular Item of Treasure to manage, they can move along and get ready to sell off the remainder… or return to the villagers, but I rarely have encountered a party that respects property rights in that way. Finders Keepers seems to be a core player principal regardless of alignment.
**So why do it this way? Three reasons**
One, it gives the players more agency in their own rewards. They love that. Players sometimes spend their entire game looking for a specific item they want. Just delivering an item often feels forced, and depending on the flow of your campaign a side quest might come off as really out of place. This allows you to give it to them somewhat randomly but still within reason and without treasure table lottery getting involved.
Two, you can assign a narrative plot point to the Item Group. In your DM notes write something like Riverbank Goblin Treasure was taken from The Village of Sandlot. Why is that important? Well, lets say in Sandlot there is a sacred stone to the Village and it was in that treasure pile. They play some sort of game with it in the summer months. No one would know that except them, and since Sandlot is the closest village to the riverbank where the goblins were camping there is a good chance the players are headed there to see the stuff. Brilliant! They have no idea there is something special in there... but you do, and you don't have to tip you hand by pointing out that one "specific" item that they will then fixate on. So good!
Third, it gives you the ability to fluidly work a treasure pile and fill it with things that actually make it Treasure without having to use endless tables full of bits and baubs (like an electrum bird cage) that have a ridiculously outta wack Gold value attached to them, but what's great is those types of things are still in there! You just no longer have to worry about them! Unless you want to!
Best of all, if you use the Ale Standard Method, you can use all manner of coinage! That pile can still have genuine silver or gold coins in it and still makes sense because it breaks down quickly to a common value. You don’t have to do the exact math on how much a pile of silver coins is. You just tell them they found a small chest of silver coins from six different nations, each of them differently sized and stamped, and worth 1500 Ale Coins. This has a much more interesting narrative effect than just rewarding them with bland 100sp. Furthermore when someday you do drop 100 Gold Coins on them (Which doesn’t feel like a lot at first), but they’ll do their own math and realize you just gave them almost $650k in treasure it makes getting actual Gold AMAZING, and not just a “Oh, another chest of gold…” You give them platinum, and they’ll pee their pants in excitement.
And on top of all that, this allows you to more easily make up strange forms of currency like wooden or bone tokens that have an associated value to them. Imagine them opening a chest and finding 5000 Coins worth of Bone Nickels that are used by nearby Ogre Clans in place of standard Coinage. It is something strange and weird that still has an easily accessible common value!
**So back to our example.**
Our treasure pile worth 7500 Coins worth about 50 longswords. 250 days worth of poor living. Or 7500 Ales! Which is much more reflective of what a low level adventuring party would gain by killing a CR2 Dragon. That number is both realistic and easy to navigate.
Now, with treasure in hand, they are off to spend their wealth. Here once again Ale Coins shine, because let’s face it. After those first few levels, unless you work really hard as a DM, money stops mattering.
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We begin to just toss gold around everywhere, because we don’t want to deal with a meal that costs a silver and an ale that costs a copper and a room that costs 3 silver and a bag of wheat that costs… who the heck knows… but there is a value for it somewhere. Most of us don’t want to do all that silly math. Which is why the PHB has some standard cost of living totals for us to quickly turn to and now they make sense and can easily be deducted from our Coin totals.
Soon enough they will head somewhere, usually the closest town, and begin bartering away their Item Groups to merchants. But as they’re exchanging things, folks they’re dealing with may notice some of the items that the players had not context for but the villagers do. This provides a lot of opportunity to deal with property rights or to drop adventure hooks on them.
“Where did you get that “Small Mirror Set In A Painted Wooden Frame” (Actual DMG Treasure Item worth 25gp or $11,000)???
“This? Umm… I think this came out of the Dragon’s Treasure”
“Audry must be dead then…” He begins crying “I’ll give you anything you want for that! It belonged to my sister! She went missing a month ago. It was her prized possession.”
“Oh dang, well to us its just a MIRROR worth no more than the price of a TV… so just take it!”
“Why thank you THANK YOU! Here, take this! It was my Fathers Ancient War Sword! It has been in my family for generations, but I’m going to give it to some random stranger rather than my own son because you did something nice for me that really cost you almost nothing! They say it can talk to you and will lead you to an ancient treasure if you just sit and attune to it for an hour… but we never believed any of that nonsense!”
By dealing with their treasures this way you can sneak plot items into their piles and not have to point them out which always makes them suspicious. If you tell them there is a mirror in the pile it becomes a focus. If you tell them there are multiple household items in there... Well then they just scoop them up and you can decide whether or not to make them relevant later! Sure they’ll start paying more attention to what they grab, but you can still play the same game. They'll want to look closer, but since they have no context to what may or may not be important there is no way for them to pick out that mirror! OR you have them roll like above and they do find something in particular. A frame with a name engraved on it or something to that effect. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination!
Well… those are my thoughts on the matter of Treasure… "This is the END. I am going. I am leaving NOW. GOODBYE." Which is a quote from a little feller who spent a lifetime, not just a few weeks, spending the gold from two small chests. A very realistic and sensible way to buy a lot of Ale!
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# RULES AND MECHANICS
###
##### These are discussions on how certain rules are implemented at the table. Some of them are "takes" and some of those "Hot" but either way The One Rule That Rules Them All is, as a DM you decide (hopefully with your players in collaboration) how and what rules to follow in order to play the best games possible for your group!
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## What Do the Dice Say?
### A Discussion on "Fudging" Dice
After playing for four decades, I’ve seen the topic pop up pretty often, so I thought I’d weigh in with what I’ve learned in that time.
There is a lot of debate over the topic of Fudging Dice rolls, and the consensus is that there is no consensus. One would think that there would simply be two camps on the issue. Those who fudge and those who don’t. But it’s far more complicated than calling out “That DM Definitely Fudges.”, and there are a lot of things to take into consideration. But what exactly is Fudging? The short of it… Fudging Dice is basically declaring a result different than the result the Dice delivered.
Example: The players are almost dead, but they’ll almost certainly kill the Dragon next round if it doesn’t end them this round. It is kill or be killed time. No more Grandstanding. No more intimidating. Both sides are on the verge of defeat. The DM rolls to see if the beast’s breath weapon recharges. The dice clatter behind the screen. If it rolls a six the tragic fate of the players will be sealed. The DM looks at the players dramatically, her stone cold expression giving no clue as to the result. The players attempt to insight their Game Master to no avail. Her eyes glance down at the dice, a 6. The Breath Weapon has recharged. But instead of declaring their doom, she smirks and tells them the Dragon does not regain that ability this round and proceeds to attack them physically, which leaves only the Sorcerer standing. Who then in turn burns that last of their spell points and pumps hot magic into the foe ending the encounter and saving the day. The table rejoices and cheers with delight and relief. The DM smiles and sits back in their chair. Her players are having fun and to her that’s all that matters. Later she is confronted by a player that peeked behind the Screen and saw that the monster should have killed them all. That player is a little sad that they were robbed of the true outcome of the story. That they had failed. They make the argument that if there is no chance of true failure then a lot of the game loses its thrill. The DM ponders these words and is now caught in the moral dilemma of Dice Fudgery.
This is the core of the argument. Do we bend the rules to tell the story we want to tell regardless of the Dice or do the Dice ultimately control the narrative, and much in the way that real life does, with no care for our personal wants and desires. It really is a tough choice. A choice that can have a direct effect on the fun level of the table. So here are my thoughts on it.
I have Fudged Dice, but only under rare conditions. Contrary to popular belief, Roleplaying Games aren’t really all that random. They have fully randomized elements to it, but it takes planning and action to move things along. I can throw a high level creature at a party of Level 1s and destroy them, the Dice have no say. I do. The players can choose to flee the village on the eve of a battle. The Dice have no say. They do. And so choices and planning are my first and only consideration, but not in the way you might be thinking.
I don't Fudge Dice if the story isn’t going as panned. I Fudge Dice only if I have made a mistake in planning. If they’re in a situation that has a reasonable chance of success or they have put themselves into trouble through their own poor choices then the Dice will say what they have to say. But if I accidentally back them into an impossible corner or foolishly overestimated their ability to deal with a situation, I may Fudge Dice to correct my mistakes. It isn’t much different than providing a narrative escape route, or a deus ex machina, which we do all the time as DMs. Except in this case you’re still providing the illusion of the Dice rolling in their favor.
The problem with this method is the temptation to always give them an out. You simply can’t let that happen. The Dice need their voice. Which is why I only fudge them when I am the one who has made the mistake. Otherwise, once the players start thinking they have plot armor, the game loses a lot of the thrill, and it is no longer a game, it’s just a story, and sometimes that’s all we want. And there are a lot of folks who play with a "Story" over rolls philosophy. I get and respect that. I was there for a long time. But the idea is a major flaw to it. That flaw? You cannot possibly tell which outcome will make a better story for your players. Some of my absolute favorite story beats (And my players) were when the Dice broke them. Trust your players to respond in awesome ways when the dice roll hard against them.
Ultimately my opinion is, Dice Fudgery is on rare occasions necessary, but should not be used to "save" the players from tragedy. If you want it to be a game with any level of tension it is absolutely necessary for failure and even death to be on the table at all times, and thus the Dice need their voice. However, if you want it to simply be collaborative Heroic Story Telling (valid playstyle) then you should consider dramatically minimizing your use of dice or use a system that better suits your group's vibe.
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## Percentage Damage
#### A Rework of Hazard Damage
###
One of the more generally discussed letdowns of 5th Edition and D&D as a whole is the ineffectiveness of certain “hazards” that players may encounter. Dangerous Terrain is often easily dealt with. Traditional traps don’t make sense at most levels. And let’s not even get started on how silly the formulae for Fall Damage is in the game.
Now, it is fair to address the truth that this is a game, and games need to have certain guidelines, and sometimes in order for the game part of the game to work as a game they need to be gamey. So I don’t necessarily have an issue with that, my issue is how those parts of the game become inconsequential due to other game mechanics. I find that sad in a lot of ways. The feeling of dread one should face when crossing an “endless” desert should not ever become trivialized, even with Class abilities that help the players this should still be a difficult experience. Traps should still be a dangerous prospect without the DM having to ramp up damage values. And let's face it, even an angry smash things character should fear tumbling off of a 100’ cliff. That isn’t something they should walk away from laughing taking only 30 damage.
Therefore, I recommend the following.
Use a percentage value and not a direct dice value. Allow these Hazards to do damage that reflects a percentage of Max HP. Older editions used the percentage value in a lot of interesting ways. (A lot of cumbersome ways as well) But when we moved the game to a full d20 system, we lost both the good and the bad of the d100 rolls. I believe going back to some of these types of rolls is a simple and realistic fix to at least a handful of the wonkiness that 5e presents.
So let’s walk through some mechanics of how this works. First, how it works now.
Your 7th level players enter Dragon’s Cavern. This Dragon has a swarm of Kobolds worshiping it. Now, we know these little buggers are notorious for placing traps… well… everywhere. You players are doing a good job at disabling them. Either by intentionally setting them off or by skillfully disarming them. However, the further in they go the more compound the devices become.
Sooner or later they are going to trip one. Dozens of Darts shoot out of the wall at the Player. The Rogue makes a DEX saving throw, but fails. Many of them catch her straight on. You as a DM roll 4d10 Damage (DMG guidelines for a “Dangerous Trap” for a 5th-10th level party) But the average of that trap is only 20 damage. A 5th level Rogue with even -2 in Con has an average of 23 HP. So not quite as Dangerous as it should be. Even if it is a trap with an attack roll that does not get a save for half, they still have uncanny dodge, and so it is a hard sell in many cases to make the trap feel Dangerous let alone Deadly.
It would be quite difficult for this trap to put a 7th Level Rogue in any real danger, unless they are already wounded. It still may do damage and could consume resources, either in just the HP pool or in healing abilities, but ultimately it is rather nonthreatening. Furthermore, it is pretty unlikely that the Rogue misses that saving throw, and once you take Evasion into consideration, any damage, even from a Deadly Trap, becomes almost laughable.
Conceptually, traps are designed by those that place them to be deadly. The makers aren’t putting traps in the dungeon to be a nuisance. They are there to kill people. So if we use the Deadly Trap in the DMG it does up to 10d10, that could kill a Rogue at 5th level if all their skills go awry, but almost certainly wouldn’t kill a Barbarian and is less than 50% likely to kill a Fighter or Pally. Worse, that trap is listed as deadly to a 10th level player as well…. which it isn’t, not even close. Many 10th level casters could survive that “deadly” trap. This cycle repeats itself through the tiers of play, which is a little wonky. Furthermore Trap damage is stacked against a lower HD character, and while that makes some sense, it still feels strange. Also the need for increasing damage tables is cumbersome.
**So Let’s Talk About A Percentage Based Damage**
If we switch to a percentage base. Then at any given level a trap does a random percentage of the player’s Max HP. The formula is consistent throughout any tier of play, and consistent against different types of characters. Let me show you how I figure out that Percentage.
**Trap Level / d4**
- Setback / 2d4
- Dangerous / 2d4+2
- Deadly / 2d4+4
- The total rolled is the Percentage of Damage done.
So let’s say the Barbarian has 300hp and the Rogue as 100. They trip a deadly trap so the DM rolls 2d4+4 and gets a 3, a 2, and adds 4. That is 90% of their max HP in damage. The Barb takes 270 and the Rogue takes 90. The amount is equal regardless of class. They both likely get a save and due to Danger Sense and Evasion the damage is hopefully even less, but still extreme enough to hurt. This makes the level of the Trap actually consistent no matter the level of the player or the class.
The same concept works for Fall Damage, and other Hazards as well.
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Fall Damage becomes something like 10% per 10 feet fallen. Saving throws apply, and you could toss in rules like they automatically succeed for every 10’ Equal to their DEX mod… landing in water halves the damage, etc. The percentage is a concept that you can play with. The environment is harsh… They lose a cumulative percentage of their HP every day traveled that they don’t make a CON save. So the “Long Rest” every night doesn’t automatically fix the damage or at my table the exhaustion. Making the ability of say, a Ranger, to move faster even more valuable.
Now this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, because often the implementation of traps and hazards can slow the game down as players begin to overthink and over-roll everything they encounter. I have ways of dealing with that as well, but that is a discussion for another day. It also comes off as a little stacked against characters with high HP. It isn’t. It is an equal playing field, but it can feel that way. On this topic, at least for me, I think this procedure adds back a lot of the tension created by these types of things that disappears after they gain a few levels. It allows for interesting story mechanics to revolve around these nonstandard encounters. And even better, it turns a nuisance into an actual resource consuming problem, and that truly helps the flow of the way 5e has set up their encounters per day, and that is a win for everyone.
## Physical Health
#### Tracking Long Term Wounds
###
There is a point in every Player’s life where they inflict or take a massive amount of damage and think something along the lines of “That’s gonna leave a mark.” Typically however, the mechanics of our games just don’t lend themselves to that kind of outcome. Broken bones and gaping lacerations just simply aren’t a thing when hurts and pains are soothed away by a night’s rest or the magics of healing. A DM is hard pressed to force a player to limp, let alone deal with a busted arm, when the rules say that sleeping it off restores all wounds. There are often rule alternatives that deal with easy healing, such as the Gritty Realism variant in D&D, but far too often these feel punitive or the story starts lending itself to long periods between events and not back to back heroism. It simply becomes hard if not downright impossible to find a way to incorporate lasting damage and keep things fun.
To remedy that I created my own system and believe it does a good job of dealing with this topic. It does have a few bumps to it but overall, if you use common sense and fair judgment, I do like the way it plays. I call it Physical Health, or PH for short.
Most of us, no matter the system, are extremely familiar with the concept of Hit Points, or HP. Physical Health works in almost the same manner, only it is a much smaller number and not as easily restored as HP. Thankfully, it is not as easily lost. If I’m running a 5e D&D game I start my players out with 8 plus their Constitution Modifier worth of PH. So at a +2 to Constitution they would have 10 PH Max, which is average for a Player Character. That Max Score only changes if their Constitution Mod Changes.
Now, as the players progress through the game they get into combats, are hurt by the environment, and stumble into traps. These things have potential to not only damage their HP but their PH as well. As their Physical Health gets lower they begin to risk a long term injury or even potential death. The DM decides what kinds of things chip away PH and what kind of lasting injury a character endures when they reach 0. The DM also decides what kind of activities restore PH as they don’t simply refresh when a character takes a Long Rest.
#### Types of Damage that Affect PH
*Here are my most common scenarios that subtract PH.*
- **Critical Hits:** Critical Hits scored against them is a great way to chip away their PH, however this can take a ugly turn if the Dice decide to roll against that player poorly so I typically allow some sort of Saving Throw against multiple crits in one combat.
- **Hits over a certain damage amount:** I think we can all agree that getting pounded for 50+ HP in a single turn ought to have some sort of consequence. This is a great place to take a PH. Again I wouldn’t do this in a fight multiple times without some way of escaping.
- **Fall Damage:** I hate fall damage in games. It is so completely unrealistic it doesn’t even fit in a world of magical dungeons and mythical dragons. And while not everything needs to be “real” in my game, I simply cant stand the mechanics of fall damage. I inflict PH damage for every 10’ they fall past 10* their Dexterity Modifier.
- **Damage from Traps and Hazards**: Traps and hazards are often relegated into the category of troublesome nuisance. Adding some PH damage to them in addition to doing HP damage really spices them up a bit. It makes them serious trouble and something players take time to deal with.
- **Getting Seriously Poisoned, a Disease, or Sickness:** These types of things again are often simply a Hand Wave of magical resources away being any trouble at all. Adding some PH damage caused by a poison or disease before a Cleric has a chance to remove it makes them once again terrifying.
- **Dropping to 0 HP:** In most cases a player drops to 0 HP by taking damage. Although there are some spells and monster powers that do so for other reasons. Dropping to zero most often should leave a little lasting damage.
- **Failing some Death Saving Throws**: This can feel a bit punitive as they’ve likely already lost a point from being knocked out. I usually only do this if they take direct damage while down. If they’re just laying there bleeding out I usually don’t enforce an extra point.
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#### Typical Things That Can Restore PH
*Here are my most common scenarios in which I restore some PH. I never restore all of it. Usually 1 or 2 points at a time. But that is up to the DM’s discretion and to how your players go about their healing.*
- **Resting:** I make a solid distinction between simply sleeping and an actual Good Night’s Rest. Sleeping for a Long Rest anywhere does what a Long Rest does and should return a point of PH. PH should be restored quicker if the character can get to someplace comfortable and safe.
- **Treatment by a Physician:** This makes Hospitals and Doctors an important thing in your world. Magic can heal up HP damage, but you may need a Doctor to actually restore PH.
- **Using the Medicine Skill:** I mean honestly, unless the DM is going out of their way to make this useful, we all know it is one of the least functional skills in the Game. However if someone is Proficient in the Skill and has the tools they need, there is no reason not to let players benefit from it! This becomes a great reason to have at least one party member skilled with Medecine!
- **Powerful Magic:** There are some spells out there that simply would overcome PH Damage. Heal, Regeneration, and Wish come to mind immediately.
#### What Happens at Zero?
This depends on the “Danger Level” of your game. The more dangerous game the worse it is to reach 0 PH. Here are some examples. Feel free to mix the ideas up and, as always, do what feels best for your game.
##### Type of Game
- **Just for Fun:** Don’t use PH
- **Casual:** Permanent Scars or Short Term Disabilities
- **Balanced Danger:** Serious Wounds & Lasting Injury
- **Dangerous:** Permanent Failed Death Saving Throw
- **Deadly:** Character Dies
I’ve played with everything from hitting zero means death to hitting zero automatically causes on failure on Death Saves to hitting zero means a scar or broken arm. Things like that
#### So Why Do All This?
For flair and layers really. Personally, I like the extra danger it presents without adding a lot of extra work. I connect with damage that isn’t easily negated by “magic”, gives a reason to spend a few extra days in town doing Downtime Activities, and adds a background layer of Risk vs Reward to any and all encounters, particularly if they’ve already taken some PH damage. Players who know they’re going to be able to immediately rest away any HP damage they take in a combat are much more prone to blind recklessness during their encounters. Although, my experience with this system is that players don’t stop being reckless with this added risk, instead they get more open eyed and creative about how they do it.
If you decide to roll with this concept please talk to your players. I've had great success with the concept. Most of my folks really like the more real feeling danger this adds, but there plenty who won’t want health and HP to be anything more than a game mechanic. It is always important to make sure your folks are on board and willing to play under these changes.